r, or
less, or equal importance, from which our description will be proved.

XVIII Now, if there be more matters to be defined,--as for instance,
if we inquire whether he is a thief or a sacrilegious person who has
stolen sacred vessels from a private house,--we shall have to employ
many definitions, and then the whole cause will have to be dealt with
on a similar principle. But it is a common topic to dwell on the
wickedness of that man who endeavours to wrest to his own purposes not
only the effect of things, but also the meaning of words, in order
both to do as he pleases, and to call what he does by whatever name he
likes.

Then the first topic to be used by an advocate for the defence, is
also a brief and plain definition of a name, adopted in accordance
with the opinion of men. In this way--To diminish the majesty of the
people is to usurp some of the public powers when you are not invested
with any office. And then the confirmation of this definition is
derived from similar instances and similar principles. Afterwards
comes the separation of one's own action from that definition. Then
comes the common topic by which the expediency or honesty of the
action is increased.

Then comes the reprehension of the definition of the opposite party,
which is also derived from all the same topics as those which we have
prescribed to the accuser. And afterwards other arguments will be
adduced besides the common topic. But that will be a common topic
for the advocate of the defence to use, by which he will express
indignation that the accuser not only alters facts in order to bring
him into danger, but that he attempts also to alter words. For
those common topics which are assumed either for the purpose of
demonstrating the falsehood of the accusations of the prosecutor, or
for exciting pity, or for expressing indignation at an action, or for
the purpose of deterring people from showing pity, are derived from
the magnitude of the danger, not from the nature of the cause.
Wherefore they are incidental not to every cause, but to every
description of cause. We have made mention of them in speaking of the
conjectural statement of a case, but we shall use induction when the
cause requires.

XIX But when the pleading appears to require some translation, or to
need any alteration, either because he is not pleading who ought to
do so, or he is not pleading with the man he ought, or before the men
whom he ought to have for hearers